Do you ever wonder how people include special characters to their social media profiles and posts? Owls, smiley’s, hearts, clovers, clouds…it really is as easy and copying and pasting. I found this out while creating a profile for a shop I sell my creative wares on and felt I needed to share this with the world!

Here are some of the more common symbols you can use. Just copy them from this blog (or the sources at the end of this blog) and paste them into you social media posts and/or profiles. I have tested this for Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.

When is the best time to use these symbols? Well, that depends upon your purpose. I highly suggest them in personal correspondence like birthday and get well wishes. I strongly discourage them when you are trying to portray yourself as a serious professional. For businesses, they are useful at adding a little visual appeal to your dialog or to help with instruction. However, do not neglect symbols from time to time for business as they can establish that fact that you are human.

What are your thoughts? When should you use/stay clear from HTML symbols for social media?